#Film Review: Netflix’s The Foreigner (2017)

I watched this film a few days ago on Netflix, but did not have the time to write about it until now. It was an interesting film, but I was also annoyed a few times.

The story is basically centred on Quan Ngoc Minh (Jackie Chan) who is trying to revenge the death of his daughter who died in IRA bombing. This terrorist attack came after a new group of IRA members tried to compromise the peace agreement between Ireland and the UK.

Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan) is a First Minister in Ireland dedicated to keeping the peace and he is running an investigation under the pressure from the British cabinet because he wants to stop a bloodshed that would inevitably happen if British troops were sent to Ireland again.

However, this investigation is disrupted by Minh who is insisting on information on perpetrators so he can execute them for the death of his daughter. This is an annoying element of the film because Minh endangers people in his quest and also starts acting like a terrorist when he bombs and attacks the office of the First Minister, his farm, etc. Therefore, a viewer fails to identify with his pain for losing the only child even after we have learnt that this daughter was the last family member he had.

The interesting part in the film is a quest to discover who the perpetrators are, as we doubt Hennessy but also his nephew who is sleeping with his wife. Some interesting events at the end of the film and an interesting discovery on who actually triggered new attempt to jeopardise the peace.

Overall, the film tries to be similar to ‘Taken’ where a father is also trying to revenge his daughter, however, in Taken the daughter is kidnapped and the father is trying to save her. In that, he is not trying to put other people in danger by being careless. Thus, viewer identifies with the father more.

Not a bad watch, but also not something you absolutely have to watch so give it some time if you have other things to watch and enjoy that first.